


Slow Burn

by thelilacfield



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Royalty, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-08
Updated: 2014-06-08
Packaged: 2018-02-03 21:57:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1758005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelilacfield/pseuds/thelilacfield
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blaine meets Kurt when he's sixteen. Kurt meets the strange dragon boy who stops him from breaking a bone when he falls out of a tree.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slow Burn

In his sixteenth year, Blaine is just starting to breathe fire, the heat that swells inside him growing bigger. The transformation comes more easily to him, the scales climbing over his skin whenever he wants them too, no longer unreliable or temperamental. He can extend his wings whenever he feels like it and take off, away from the caves and the smoke and his father’s judgement.

He likes to fly over the kingdom cradled between the mountains, looking down on the winding, cobbled streets, the people that seem like ants from among the clouds. Some of them look up and smile at him, fascinated by dragons. There are so many myths about the men who originally became dragons, and Blaine himself will often go to the grand halls of the library and search through the tomes for the tales of his own ancient race.

Flying high over the castle, he stares down at the towers and the sprawling green grounds. Everyone knows of the tragic king, the man who lost a wife and a baby to the harsh winter, leaving him with only his oldest son, two men rattling around in a palace too big for just them. However, whispers have reached the caves of a new woman, a healer from a village beyond the mountain peaks, who may have enchanted the king.

The prince is sitting in the gardens, by the rose bushes. Blaine remembers his brother talking about how the queen loved the rose bushes, the daughter who died young named Rose. It must be the prince’s only connection to the family the frost took from him. The prince is so pretty, a year older than Blaine himself, wearing red and gold and watching the horizon.

Wings beating slowly to keep him aloft, Blaine watches the prince moving away from the roses, towards one of the tall trees with their gnarled limbs that rise from the smooth green lawns. He slowly lowers himself through the sky to watch him climbing, polished boots clinging to the rough bark and hands reaching up like an expert for each branch, scaling the tall tree as if it’s nothing more than a short flight of stairs.

Blaine’s lucky that he’s close enough to see when the prince nears the top of the tree and the branches grow slender and spindly, less solid than those closer to the ground. He hears the prince’s scream threading the air, see the branch snap as he tries to heave himself up, and swoops down to catch him around the waist before he hits the ground. But rather than deposit him back on the grass, he swoops up into the summer sky, the prince screaming and kicking in his grasp, until they reach the peak of the smallest mountain.

"Who are you?" the prince snarls angrily, straightening his clothes with violent tugs and folding his arms over his chest, glaring at Blaine. "How  _dare_  you? Don’t you know who I am?”

Shrinking back into his human form, Blaine smiles, a little embarrassed. “Only that you’re the prince,” he answers, and the prince looks at him, eyes a little wide. “I’m sorry for frightening you. It’s in my nature, to snatch princes from their towers and bring them to the caves.”

The prince backs away, drawing the short cape that hangs from his shoulders closer around his gangly body. “Are you going to eat me?” he asks, staring at Blaine’s mouth like he expects fangs to suddenly sprout. “Please don’t. I can bring you meat from the castle, but I can’t leave my dad alone. He’s already lost my mom and my sister.”

"I’m not going to hurt you," Blaine reassures him, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Today’s dragons don’t eat people. There are farmers in the kingdom who allow us free access to their livestock, and often give us weak or sick animals. And we don’t eat meat raw. We aren’t animals, we’re people who are able to transform into an ancient and noble race of creatures."

Finally, the prince appears to relax a little. “I’m sorry,” he says. “There are so many legends and tales about dragons, it’s difficult to separate truth from story. Can we start again?” He holds out a polite hand. “I’m Kurt.”

"Blaine," Blaine says softly, and takes Kurt’s hand to shake it. He looks at Kurt’s pretty face, soft and pale, freckles scattered like stars across his nose and cheeks, his eyes bright in the sunlight. These past few years, he’s begun to wonder if perhaps women don’t appeal to him in the same way they do to his friends in the clan, or to his brother. The squealing princesses that Cooper bears to their cave never stir his heart in the same way that this prince does. "Would you like me to take you home? When the sun starts to go down, it gets very cold in the caves. I don’t notice it."

"Because of the fire inside?" Kurt asks, and Blaine nods slowly. "I learned about dragons after my mother passed away, down in the castle library. The mythology is amazing. People say that an enchantress fell in love with a clumsy knight, who was injured protecting his king in battle, and she turned him into a creature who could rule the skies as a reward."

Kurt continues to tell Blaine stories of the castle as Blaine transforms and flies him back to the castle, setting him down gently on the balcony outside his chambers. “Will you come back?” Kurt asks before Blaine leaves. Dipping his head, Blaine nudges his snout against Kurt’s hand, and Kurt giggles, light and happy on the summer breeze. “I’ll be waiting for you.”

* * *

Blaine visits Kurt again a few months later, after his own seventeenth birthday. He’s spent many nights contemplating the stirrings the young prince caused in him, and he’s sure that they’re the same feelings Cooper speaks of when he sees a pretty girl. When he goes to his father and tries to explain his feelings, his father dismisses him with a rumble, and takes off, his form dark against the sky as he circles the mountains for hours, not returning until long after sunset.

Autumn has settled onto the kingdom, turning the trees red and gold and the fields into treasure chests, the harvest heavy on the air. The sun reflects off Blaine’s golden scales, the same colour as his eyes, as he swoops low over the castle, flying quietly to the window of Kurt’s chambers. The prince is sitting at his desk, crouched over a sheet of parchment, quill in hand. Letting the scales melt away, Blaine knocks on the wall next to the open door, and Kurt’s head jerks up.

A smile lights up his face when he sees Blaine, and he scrambles up to rush across the room and hug him. “I hoped you might come,” he says, Blaine’s thoughts still reeling from the hug. Kurt has changed since the last time he saw him, taller and more slender, starting to turn into the man he will become. He looks regal in his blue and silver clothes, his hair styled up tall and neat, his eyes bright and his face growing more angular, more a man than a boy. “Blaine?”

"Sorry, I was…distracted," Blaine says softly, trying to shake himself out of the daze. "How’s castle life been since I left you here?"

Biting his lip and looking down, Kurt says, “Can you take me to that mountain again? I…I liked it there. I liked the quiet and the privacy. Or…or to your cave. All dragons have their own caves, right?”

"I share with my brother until he finds a mate, but I think he’s flown away to a princess who is charmed by him, for some unthinkable reason," Blaine says, rolling his eyes, and Kurt covers his mouth to smother a laugh. "I can carry you, or you could ride on my back. I think I can support your weight."

"I’d rather be carried," Kurt says with a nervous look, and Blaine beckons him closer as he changes, wrapping one arm securely around Kurt and taking off into the sky.

Kurt sits on the floor of the cave, looking around in awe, as Blaine quickly arranges a fire in the centre, blowing a tongue of flame into the centre of the logs to keep Kurt warm. “Could a human come up here without being flown?” he asks. “It would be nice, to have a way to see you whenever I wanted.”

"You would have to be careful, climbing up here would be treacherous," Blaine says gently. "But no dragon would seek to harm you. Although there are a few women who might try to make you their own, but if you told them you were looking for me they’d leave you. My father is the leader of the clan, after all."

Crossing his legs, Kurt stares into the centre of the fire, starting when Blaine comes to put an arm around him. “My father is remarrying,” he says, the words spilling out like he can’t keep them back any longer. “She’s a lovely woman, a healer who lost her husband in the last war. She has a son, a little younger than me. I know she makes my dad happy, but…I can’t help but be a little upset. Finn is wonderful, but I feel like my father loves me less because of my own…preferences.”

Kurt’s eyes are wet as he meets Blaine’s gaze, and Blaine holds him closer, laying his head on Kurt’s shoulder. “I like men, Blaine, and Finn likes women,” he says quietly. “Finn is the heir my father wants. I don’t want to marry a princess and have a family, I want to be with a man I can love.”

"Maybe you should talk to your dad about this," Blaine says. "How can you know that this is how he feels if you don’t ask him? You’re his only legitimate child, Kurt, you’re his heir. I’m sure he loves you more than anything."

Kurt smiles at him, and Blaine smiles back, pulling him close as they both gaze into the crackling flames. They stay like that for hours, exchanging stories and jokes and shy smiles and touches that might mean more, until the sun starts to set and the cold steals into the cave. When he notices Kurt shivering, Blaine immediately snatches him up to take him home.

Climbing over the fence onto the balcony, Kurt turns back to smile at Blaine, hovering just beyond the fence. “I’ll see you soon,” he says, and it’s more of a promise than a statement, and Blaine nods along. Then his eyes go wide as Kurt leans over the barrier between them and drops a soft kiss on Blaine’s snout, smiling shyly at him, a blush colouring his cheeks, before he disappears into his chambers.

* * *

Winter comes, and the cold is clinging, covering the land in a blanket of white, frost and snow and ice. Blaine stays curled up in his cave, the fire inside keeping him protected against the elements, as the heavy snowfalls start to lift a little, giving way to days clear but cold, his breath hanging on the air when he ventures out for food.

He hears the sound of rocks crunching beneath heavy feet, the sound of panting and muffled angry muttering, and moves away from helping a young boy reach a particularly choice cut of meat. Looking over the edge of the drop, he sees Kurt scaling the rock, a loop of rope hanging from his shoulder and his clothes not those of a prince, simple and close-fitting, obviously chosen for ease of movement.

Reaching down, Blaine grabs Kurt’s hand and hauls him to safety, fear gripping him at the thought of him scaling the mountain alone. He could’ve fallen, could’ve been hurt, and no one would’ve been able to find him. The fear only increases when he looks at Kurt and sees the tear tracks, the dark smudges below his eyes that are souvenirs of sleepless nights, barely noticing his beauty now he’s almost eighteen. “What’s wrong?” he asks anxiously, pulling Kurt into his cave, out of the public eye.

"My father wants me to get married!" Kurt says, tears slipping down his cheeks, and Blaine pulls him close, a lump in his own throat as he watches Kurt cry. "He’s chosen a husband from a neighbouring kingdom, Sebastian Smythe, to form an alliance. But Sebastian’s horrible, Blaine, I don’t want to be with him! I knew he wanted me to get married when I turned eighteen, but I hoped to choose my own husband."

"You need to tell him that, Kurt," Blaine says soothingly, dabbing Kurt tears away with the edge of his sleeve. "Maybe you should go to him with someone in mind to make him listen."

"That’s the thing," Kurt says, his voice still constricted with emotion. "Even before he came up with this, I had someone in mind. I have since I met him, when I was only sixteen." His gaze meets Blaine’s, and Blaine’s heart skips a beat as he realises what Kurt’s trying to hint at.

Kurt kisses him then, and Blaine’s sure that it’s the best kiss he’ll ever have. Kurt’s lips are soft, and slightly salty from his crying, and his arms are strong around Blaine’s neck, his body heavy and warm in Blaine’s lap. Kissing him feels perfect, and Blaine wants to gush about this the way his friends gush about kissing girls. He wants to sing with joy, he wants to tell the whole world that the prince kissed him, that Kurt  _likes_  him. Kurt wants to marry him, spend their whole lives together, no matter the obstacles presented with him a prince and Blaine a dragon.

They spend the night together, Blaine curled around Kurt to keep him warm, exchanging kisses and promises and words of love as the moon dips below the horizon and the sun comes up. Kurt takes Blaine’s hand and they descend the mountain together, the sun high in the sky by the time they reach the castle.

A pretty woman flies at Kurt as soon as he walks through the door, her dark hair tumbling around her shoulders and Kurt’s stepbrother following close behind. Blaine looks at her and assumes her to be Finn’s love, the way he looks at her and gently prises her away from Kurt. “Where have you been?” she snaps shrilly. “You just shouted at your dad that you didn’t want to marry Sebastian and ran off, we’ve been frantic! Go and see him, he’s in his study.”

"I’m sorry for scaring you, Rachel," Kurt says, soothing and diplomatic. He reaches for Blaine’s hand and draws him closer. "Blaine, this is Rachel, Finn’s future wife. Rachel, this is Blaine."

“ _The_  Blaine?” Rachel asks, grinning, and Kurt can barely contain his joy as he nods. Blaine’s eyes go wide as she throws herself at him in a hug. “I’ve been waiting to meet you!”

Kurt drags Blaine away from her quickly, and his head is spinning from the maze of stairs and passages as Kurt opens a heavy wooden door to reveal his father, the king, his very presence so imposing that Blaine feels nervous, feels as if he shouldn’t be here presuming to have Kurt’s hand in marriage. “Dad, I can’t marry Sebastian,” Kurt says quickly. No explanation of where he was, no apology, just hasty and breathless confessions. “I can’t marry him because I love Blaine, and I want to be with him. Please don’t make me marry into the Smythes, Dad.”

Dropping into a bow, Blaine quickly says, “Your Highness, I apologise for the inconvenience. Kurt and I have known each other for a few years, and I am madly in love with him. I only ask for your permission to marry him and make him happy for the rest of our lives.”

The king stands, and Blaine almost backs away. “You boys really love each other?” he asks gruffly, and they both nod, Blaine far more forcefully than Kurt. “Then I don’t see a reason why you shouldn’t be together. I’ll send a messenger to the Smythes in the morning.”

Kurt is positively beaming as he hugs his father and turns to Blaine, kissing him like they’re the only ones in the room. The only two people in the world. And Blaine holds him close and kisses him back, feeling as if he doesn’t need to transform to fly.


End file.
